Reddit and Wikipedia Crack Down on AI Content While Selling Data to AI Companies

Reddit and Wikipedia are cracking down on AI-generated content through bot removals and strict new policies, even as both platforms simultaneously sell their human-curated data to major AI companies like Google and Meta, creating a paradox that experts warn undermines their own efforts.

• Reddit CEO Steve Huffman is rolling out new measures to keep the platform human-first, including labeling automated accounts as '[App]', removing bad bots at a rate of 100K accounts per day, and allowing users to more easily report suspicious AI-generated content.
• Wikipedia is now prohibiting the use of large language models to generate or rewrite content, limiting AI use to only copyediting or translation, as both platforms push back against AI-generated content amid rising demand for authentic, human-curated information.
• A major paradox looms over both platforms as they crack down on AI content while simultaneously licensing their data to AI companies like Google, Meta, and Perplexity, with experts warning that this contradiction undermines their efforts and fuels the very problem they are trying to solve.